Integral image elements which use a lenticular lens sheet, fly's eye lens sheet, or barrier strip sheet and a three-dimensional integral image aligned with the sheet, so that a user can view the three-dimensional image without any special glasses or other equipment, are known. Such imaging elements and their construction, are described in "Three-Dimensional Imaging Techniques" by Takanori Okoshi, Academic Press, Inc., New York, 1976. Integral image elements having a lenticular lens sheet (that is, a sheet with a plurality of adjacent, parallel, elongated, and partially cylindrical lenses) are often referenced as "lenticular image elements", and are also described in the following Unites States patents: U.S. Pat. No. 5,391,254; U.S. Pat. No. 5,424,533; U.S. Pat. No. 5,241,608; U.S. Pat. No. 5,455,689; U.S. Pat. No. 5,276,478; U.S. Pat. No. 5,391,254; U.S. Pat. No. 5,424,533 and others. Integral image elements with lenticular lens sheets use interleaved image slices which, in the case of a three-dimensional integral image, are vertical image slices (relative to the orientation in which the image is normally viewed) aligned with the lenticules so that a three-dimensional image is viewable when the lenticules are vertically oriented with respect to a viewer's eyes. The image may be conveniently laminated (that is, adhered) to an integral or lenticular lens sheet.
Similar integral image elements, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,268,238 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,538,632, can be used to convey a number of individual two-dimensional scenes (such as unrelated scenes or a sequence of scenes depicting motion) rather than one or more three-dimensional images, or as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,870,768. It is well appreciated that different images on integral image elements can be viewed from different angles with respect to the element by the viewer moving relative to the element. It has also been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,562,941, to move a lenticular image with respect to a lenticular lens sheet so that different images could be viewed from the same location.
Additionally, motion sequences have been displayed on lenticular images since the 1950's when cereal companies utilized them as prizes packed in the cereal boxes as reward for purchasing their brands. The sequences were relatively simple and cartoon like, initially comprising only two views, such as an opening and closing eye, or a jumping jack. By the 1960's the incorporation of photographic images was possible in image sequences, usually utilizing the motion of the camera in a cross-field direction so that with the direction of lenticules oriented vertically, the viewer's eyes would see different views enabling him to see a stereoscopic image. The methods of producing these images were purely optical which is widely discussed in issued patents. Fundamentally, a printing plate was made from a composite image which had been made optically by projecting the various views through lenticular material onto the recording medium.
Improvements in photographic emulsions and plastics forming was reflected in continuing improvements to these basic concepts through the 1970's and 1980's. In the early 1990's trading cards appeared with two or three views of a differing nature, marketed by companies such as Skybox, and Topps. Eastman Kodak introduced several new refinements in the early 1990's which allowed the number of views to be greatly increased with better optical image quality, marketed as KODAMOTION images. The views were selected by a user reviewing either hard copy prints, or soft copy displays on a computer screen, a sequence of frames of a motion scene, and manually selecting those frames that were judged would provide a desirable motion image. The emphasis was placed on commercially marketable images of sports figures and advertising promotions where many copies are to be made.
Consumers and professional photographers often capture motion image sequence on camcorders (a portable combination of both video camera and video recorder), both conventional analog type and the more recently introduced digital type. However, while the captured sequences can be replayed in a tape player with attached monitor, no convenient method has been suggested to provide a hard copy (that is, a printed copy which does not require special viewing equipment to see) displaying a captured motion image.
It would be desirable then, to provide a means by which a consumer can readily obtain a hard copy of a motion image, thereby enhancing the memory of the event and extending his enjoyment of the final image.